Building

Reads Cutlers at 4 Parliament Street is a protected structure, The building comprises two structures back to back, facing onto Parliament Street and Crane Lane respectively and separated and joined by a light-well and stairwell insertion.

Restoration

Repair in line with best practice and existing design has seen the roof repaired by skilled tradesmen as well as the external and internal restoration of No 3 Crane Lane presently nearing completion.Plans are currently being finalized for the refurbishment of the interior and exterior of No 4 Parliament Street

Family

The Read, Guinness and West Families were the first of a group of similarly socially mobile Kildare cousins to make the move to Dublin William Read, originally tenant-farmers at Oughterard near Ardclough, emerged into the eighteenth century from the humblest of backgrounds.

Trade

In Ireland, the Dublin Cutlers’The firm of Read Cutlers began as a small enterprise when in 1670 James Read purchased a knife and sword-making shop, complete with forge, in Blind Quay, Dublin (now re-named Lower Exchange Street). James Read was born of William Read 2 and Catherine, c. 1695-1698, who were tenant farmers and brewers of ‘beer’ at Oughterard in Co. Kildare.